Aquacal heater/chiller with Intellicenter

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jeremystitt

jeremystitt

Member
Jun 20, 2021
18
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Hello! I found this post again, because all was working well until recently when I tried to run my heater, and I got an error message on my Heat pump that said:

”SMART COMM FAULT”

The AquaCal manual says to verify connectivity between your controller and the heater, and I was able to confirm there were no lose connections. I was afraid there might be an issue with the heater, but when I re-configured the heater to manually control it, it kicked on without issue.

I’m pretty sure Pentair has released new firmware as they are migrating users to their new app. I was wondering if anyone else had seen this error or was having trouble controlling their heater?
 
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jeremystitt said:
Hello! I found this post again, because all was working well until recently when I tried to run my heater, and I got an error message on my Heat pump that said:

”SMART COMM FAULT”

The AquaCal manual says to verify connectivity between your controller and the heater, and I was able to confirm there were no lose connections. I was afraid there might be an issue with the heater, but when I re-configured the heater to manually control it, it kicked on without issue.

I’m pretty sure Pentair has released new firmware as they are migrating users to their new app. I was wondering if anyone else had seen this error or was having trouble controlling their heater?
Click to expand...
Call Aquacal Support.

It is more likely a problem in the heater board
 
jeremystitt said:
I was wondering if anyone else had seen this error or was having trouble controlling their heater?
Click to expand...
Yes, there are known issues with RS-485 communication between IntelliCenter and AquaCal heat pumps. I've been in touch with both Pentair and AquaCal, and they are both aware of the problem. It will take future firmware upgrades from one or both manufacturers to solve the problem. In the meantime, I'm operating my HP in standalone mode, which doesn't really bother me too much. :)

I'm not holding my breath that this problem will be fixed anytime soon.
 
pjt said:
Yes, there are known issues with RS-485 communication between IntelliCenter and AquaCal heat pumps. I've been in touch with both Pentair and AquaCal, and they are both aware of the problem. It will take future firmware upgrades from one or both manufacturers to solve the problem. In the meantime, I'm operating my HP in standalone mode, which doesn't really bother me too much. :)

I'm not holding my breath that this problem will be fixed anytime soon.
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This is what I was afraid of. Thanks for the reply. I'll call AquaCal.
 
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pjt said:
Let us know if they have any updates. On the bright side, the HPs work just fine in standalone mode.
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I called both AquaCal and Pentair today.

AquaCal guy argued me with me and offered no help or suggestions whatsoever. I hung up on him.

Pentair guy was at least somewhat open to discussing the issue, however Pentair's official stance is they do not support the interaction between intellicenter and AquaCal because they are a different manufacturer. He suggested replacing the wire, or the motherboard in the IntelliCenter unit.

Neither would confirm an open issue, and the Pentair guy suggested it should still work.

A frustrating experience to say the least. Guess I'll go try a new wire to be sure that's not the issue.
 
Call Aquacal again and see if you get a different rep.
 
jeremystitt said:
AquaCal guy argued me with me and offered no help or suggestions whatsoever. I hung up on him.
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That's odd. I've had many problems with my first unit (they ended up replacing it entirely with a new unit at their expense) but their customer service has been outstanding in my experience.

jeremystitt said:
Pentair guy was at least somewhat open to discussing the issue, however Pentair's official stance is they do not support the interaction between intellicenter and AquaCal because they are a different manufacturer.
Click to expand...
IntelliCenter 2.xxx firmware introduced changes to RS-485, which created problems with my setup. 1.064 was much better in that regard. I'm hoping Pentair fixes these problems with their next firmware update, but who knows when that will happen.
 
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